The Culture of Permaculture

​ It’s funny how time goes by. Over 25 years ago I was selling an old manure spreader and a young organic farmer showed up to look the old relic over. He decided he could make it work and he told me he would be back to pick it up in a few days. On returning he brought a well-used paper bound book on Permaculture by Bill Mollison which he said I could have. At the time we were developing our homestead following the footsteps of the Nearings and this book furthered our understanding of how to proceed. Everything in this book made sense since I was already receptive to the guiding principles of permaculture and being able to incorporate the concepts into my lifestyle was quite rewarding. Since that introduction to Permaculture I have witness a growth in interest, especially in today’s younger generations. The numbers of workshops and lectures have increased substantially since the earlier days offering us a new model of building, agriculture and landscaping. The concepts of Permaculture go well beyond how buildings are situated, the landscaping, or what and how plants are planted. The ideas of energy and resource use, economics, poverty, healthy living, etc. are all under the Permaculture umbrella. In my writings I have avoided using the term Permaculture simply because I’ve never been formally trained and have no certificate; however the concepts are embedded in almost every article and have become a part of me. I had the great opportunity to sit down in conversation with Mika, a dear friend of mine. Our main topic was the positives and negatives of the term Permaculture. Right away I thought it described what we all long for, a permanent culture that respects the Earth and all its inhabitants. As we talked I started taking second look at the term, ‘Permaculture’. Although Permaculture ideas have penetrated some aspects of society such as economics, technology, and poverty, yet it is not well known. When the majority of people hear the term ‘Permaculture’ they think of agriculture or some desire to live off the land. When penetrating the concepts of Permaculture one realizes that these concepts can be transferred to other disciplines and I believe it is this direction the Permaculture community has to grow. For instance, I was a Phys Ed. Teacher, and although it seems to be unrelated to Permaculture, I taught using Permaculture concepts. Consider how we all learned our present culture - we did not learn it in a workshop or a series of lectures, we learned it through our day to day living. When trying to start a new culture it probably has to have a name to delineate it from the mainstream culture, however if Permaculture becomes mainstream the name will fall away. For this to happen the majority of people have to be included. Mika’s concern brought about a whole new consideration that hadn’t even crossed my mind. Mika’s question was, do we really want a permanent culture? My first response was absolutely, however as the conversation progressed I wasn’t so sure. Society becomes stable when everyone participates out of a collection of acceptable habits learned since childhood on what acceptable behavior is and what is not. This is quite evident when we visit other countries and realize that our lifelong habits do not always work, and vice versa when others visit our country. The older we are the harder it is to change and habits become more permanent. I remember a sensei of mine once said, “Practice does not make perfect, practice makes permanent.” If you practice something wrong long enough it is hard to correct. Don’t we want a culture that questions our habits so they don’t become so permanent? What is in a name? I first looked at climate change in the early 70’s and it was mostly referred to as ‘the greenhouse effect’. The name didn’t really describe the mechanism correctly. In a greenhouse the heat is trapped underneath the glass while in climate change the longer heat waves are absorbed, not trapped by the CO2 molecule, hence, the more CO2 in the atmosphere the more heat is absorbed. Many preferred to call it global warming instead, however there were whole sections of the population that was experiencing colder weather and it was hard to explain that in fact the Earth’s temperature was increasing. Climate change started to be used more often because it includes the experience of a broader population. As our discussion was winding down, Mika referred to Permaculture as more of a perennial culture or perenni-culture. We looked up perennial and it was derived from per meaning throughout and annus meaning year. Other definitions included; present at all seasons of the year, persistent, enduring, continuing without interruption, constant or renewed. Whether or not the term Permaculture is changed or not the concepts need to reach a broader audience. I am so thankful for Bill Mollison and David Holmgren’s contribution and I am looking forward to the day when the principles are such a part of our culture that there is no name.